Pouring Rain

I've written recently about wondering if I should find a full-time job, or stick with stage managing or win the lottery.  And, sometimes, these thoughts get answered in mysterious ways.  Well, except for winning the lottery part.  Although, we recently had a fun family dream session where we all sat around and talked about what we would do if we won the lottery.  Brian, my husband, wins with "I would set aside money to help my friends out when they are in dire straits."  What do you say to that?  I'd go to Paris.

After my stint with New Paradise Laboratories, (doing that 3 part, multi-media piece that I wrote about), I took the managing director out for coffee to pick her brains.  I love to chat with people about their lives, how they got where they are, etc.  Anyway, she mentions that she needs help in the office (it's just her running things and the Artistic Director).  I tell her that I was free, stagnating at home and I could help out if I could learn about budgeting and grant writing.  Deal.

So I help out 15 or so hours a week.  It's very flexible; not only am I learning stuff, I'm figuring out how to work and get stuff done at home.  That last sentence may ring false because when I do a show I work 50+ hours a week.  Here's the difference: when I leave for rehearsal, I don't return until after the kids have gone to bed or are going to bed so I've missed homework, dinner, baths, etc.  I schedule little or no appointments during that time unless it's on a Monday (the day off).  Now, I'm in the baby steps of balancing a job with all that other stuff.  It's like dipping the toes in the water before jumping in full-time.

Okay, so then I run into Jorge Cousineau who has an office next door to NPL's.  He is a local sound, video, all-around brilliant artist who did the set, video, sound, and filming for Extremely Public (the multi-media show we did with NPL).  He has a dance company with his wife called Subcircle.  They needed a Stage Manager for their gig and he saw me and thought, "Look there's a stage manager!"  So I spent a week working on their dance piece.

Dance is vastly different from theater.  They have been working on this show for a couple of years.   I came into the process 2 days before they opened.  I have done dance before but not for years and it was great to re-visit it.  We set light and sound cues by skipping to that point in the dance and Jorge telling me:  "When she does this, lights and sound should go."  Of course, I didn't know what came before that cue so I had to have laser focus the first few times we ran the show.  In a 50 minute piece there were 30 light cues, 30 sound cues and 4 fly cues.   At the 4th and last show, Jorge was setting up for their fund-raiser and I was perusing the beer selection to see what choices he had made.  He asked if I wanted one and I had to tell him, "No, dude, I need every ounce of concentration for this piece."  So you know it was difficult if I had to refuse a beer!

What a long post but that's what I've been up to:  working in an office and stage managing, I've got 2 out of the 3, now I just need to win the lottery!